Dominic Raab told off by Speaker for dodging questions with ‘ancient history’

Deputy prime minister accused of using history-based ‘defensive mechanism’

Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle (UK Parliament)

The deputy prime minister has been told to stop bringing up ancient "history" to deflect from criticism of the governemnt.

Dominic Raab received a stern telling off from Lindsay Hoyle in the Commons on Wednesday after he kept answering questions about the energy crisis by bringing up former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The Speaker said Mr Raab should "stick to" the present and stop "talking about history" as a "defensive mechanism".

Standing in for Boris Johnson at prime minister's questions Mr Raab was accused by his Labour counterpart Angela Rayner of "begging" dictators like the Saudi Arabian regime for oil.

But Mr Raab replied: "Can I just gently say to the honourable lady, that when she was campaigning – as the rest of them were – to make the Honourable Member for Islington North prime minister [Jeremy Corbyn], this prime minister was foreign secretary, leading the response to the nerve agent attack..."

He was however cut off by Sir Lindsay, the Commons Speaker, who told him: "I hate to say: he can't keep going back ... years as a defensive mechanism.

"What I want you to do, deputy Prime Minister, is please if we could try and stick to the general ... without talking about history."

Sir Lindsay said past events could be mentioned "in passing" but that there were many MPs who wanted to get in and ask questions.

The deputy prime minister Mr Raab replied: "I wanted just to point out – I hope it's not ancient history – that the Prime Minister was as Foreign Secretary galvanising the response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury at the time where the honourable member, the former leader of the Labour Party, was siding with Putin."

But Ms Rayner, Labour's deputy leader, angrily retorted: "There is a war in Europe. There is a fuel energy crisis in Britain, democracy is at risk. We must support the courageous efforts of president Zelensky and the Ukrainian people.

"These uncertain times require leadership with integrity. A leader that works with the security services can be trusted to say the right thing for British diplomacy and provide security for the British people. Instead Mr Speaker We have this sorry excuse of a government sat before us."

Sir Lindsay has repeatedly ticked off Boris Johnson and other ministers for not properly answering questions in the chamber, especially at Wednesday’s regular prime minister’s questions sessions.

In November an irate speaker told the prime minister to stop asking the opposition questions and instead answer the ones put to him.